What is the Purpose of Design?
Design is one of the strategic instruments available to an entrepreneur. For me, design does not necessarily mean a "flashy design". It is more important a design fulfills its function than that it is made according to the latest fashion.
Design is the use of company colors, chosen fonts, visual elements such as lines or icons, composition, and conception of form in such a way that a clear and unambiguous representation of a company is created.
And that can just as easily mean that a website looks cheap or cluttered. That depends entirely on your target audience and what that audience expects from you or your company.
Garage sale
In that regard, a marketer's story I heard years ago was very enlightening:
Visitors to a hardware store unabashedly tore open packaging and rummaged in the boxes. The racks and aisles were a mess. To the point, the owners got fed up and commissioned an advertising agency to design a new interior for them. The new store concept was flashy, the brochures slick and the opening was a great, well-attended success.
It soon became clear that the number of visitors was declining. And in line with that, the turnover.
A survey made it clear that people no longer felt at home in the renovated store. They missed the scrabbling and messiness. And even though the prices had hardly risen, if at all, there was an expectation that they would have gone up, because the appearance was much more expensive.
Within six months, the new store concept was discarded and the old state was restored. Visitors returned and sales rose again.
Goal-oriented
The moral of the story is, of course, that you don't make the design for yourself. It hardly matters whether you think it is beautiful or ugly. What do your (potential) customers think of it, that's what it's all about.
The ultimate goal of your website is that you want to make sales. And design can help you with that. Or counteract, as you can see in the example above.
Importance
Some see no importance in design. I often read tips you shouldn’t spend money on design, that is easy and cheaper to do it yourself. This is true to some extent. And if you are starting, the costs are high enough as it is.
And of course, I am biased. I was a graphic designer in my working life. :)
Still, I hope that with this story I was able to make it clear to you that “no design” is also a choice for design. If all goes well, a very conscious choice in fact.
What is your view? Do you regard design as important?
xxx
Hannie
Recent Comments
14
Great post Hannie, one thing I have learned is listening to THE expert. There are somethings I prefer to outsource and for me that includes Design. I often read tips indicating you shouldn’t spend money on design, but I did spend for my sites and the logos were a million times better than I could ever come up with. So I agree, it may be cheaper going solo with costs in mind but when branding and growth comes in, go professional.
Exactly, Chris. And the time you gained by not designing yourself, which would have taken you much longer than the designer you hired, you have spent on your content. Win-win for everyone :)
xxx
Hannie
I was often playing with colours and tweaking here, tweeking there, changing themes, after awhile I just left it.
When I look at a new post I just read through it and go (quickly), back to the dashboard.
Your hardware analogy is a good one. I occasionally shopped in a hardware store that had stuff everywhere. But if you asked him for something, he could go straight to it.
Plus the price you would be paying would be the one he stuck on it when he got the item, which could be 5 years back.
He was serving me one day when the phone rang, and it was a supplier asking why he hadn't paid an account.
Cool as cucumber he says "I've paid that, let me get my cheque book" .
He reaches across the till and grabs his cheque book "how much did you say it was?
The guy tells him and he starts filling in the details !
" Yes I've paid that, its cheque number------" !
Michael.
Thank you for making me start my day laughing, Michael. Such a funny story. Is it alright if I borrow it one day to tell somebody else? I love stories like these :)
xxx
Hannie
I think you have given me some food for thought. Thank you. Then Geoffrey gave me another angle. This is something to consider. By nature, I prefer neat and orderly. Need to check out the competition to see what is going on out there again.
Sami
Good to hear, Sami. And as I answered Geoffrey, I think his example is another proof of the content of my article. :)
xxx
Hannie
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I think we have to look at the market that we are going to target. when we do a design, we must have made observations or research on who we will target, it looks like I will start from there so as not to harm in the future.
Great Post!!
Thanks, Bagus, and yes, you are right :)
xxx
Hannie